Voters surged into Johnson County’s advance voting sites in the final days before Tuesday’s primary election.
For the three hours early voting sites were open on Monday, more than 5,600 people cast ballots, making it the busiest Monday before an election day on record, the county election office said.
The county election office’s decision this year to roll back the number of early voting sites raised fears the move could dampen turnout.
Preliminary data from the roughly two-week early voting period shows more ballots were cast early this year than during the primary two years ago, but not as many as in 2022, the year voters were asked to decide whether constitutional protections should continue for abortion.
What are the numbers so far?
After the early voting period ended at noon on Monday, the Johnson County Election Office reported a total of 68,299 ballots had been cast in person.
That compares to 25,796 ballots cast early in-person ahead of the 2024 primary.
In 2022, the year the “Value Them Both” amendment drove record primary turnout statewide, 98,751 voters cast ballots early in Johnson County.
In addition, the election office said 13,117 voters had submitted ballots early via mail, meaning slightly less than 81,500 votes were cast early this year. That marks a turnout of about 17% thus far.
Decision to close 8 early voting sites drew pushback
Advance voting has become increasingly popular in Johnson County and, in the 2024 general election, accounted for 60% of the turnout in 2024.
This year, though, the county election office’s decision to reduce the number of voting sites has drawn criticism from county Chair Mike Kelly and other local elected officials, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and individual voters.
The decision by Connie Schmidt, who has been leading the election operations since the resignation of former Election Commissioner Fred Sherman last December, not to open eight early voting sites that had been available in 2024 became the subject of a protest and a letter signed by 21 elected Johnson County officials asking that the sites be reinstated for the November general election.
A common concern was that many closed sites were in neighborhoods where the population lacked transportation options to get to the polls. There was also concern about older voters in those areas who might not get the word about the change.
The change closed several locations in the central part of Overland Park and Olathe. Overland Park lost four locations — at Central Resource Library, Oak Park Library, Tomahawk Ridge Community Center and Johnson County Community College. Olathe lost the Downtown Library and the Johnson County Sunset offices. The two other closed sites were in Leawood and Westwood.
Why the change?
This election, Olathe maintained early voting at the Indian Creek Library and the Johnson County Election Office and Overland Park kept its early sites at the arboretum, Arts and Heritage Center and Hilltop Conference Center.
Schmidt also added two new early voting locations, at the De Soto Community Center and Spring Hill Civic Center.
Schmidt said the changes were needed to spread the voting sites more evenly throughout the county and to standardize the hours of operation and sites of drop boxes for mail-in ballots.
Still waiting to digest the data
Since the locations are different this election, it is difficult to discern how the voting has been affected, and election officials say they haven’t analyzed the numbers yet.
In the 2024 primary, the Sunset county office site was responsible for 1,107 votes with the Olathe Downtown Library, Overland Park Oak Park Library and Tomahawk Ridge turnout ranging from 500 to over 700 votes.
Of the new polling places, De Soto has so far brought in 480 voters and Spring Hill, 404.
Representatives of some of the groups with an interest in vote accessibility are waiting to weigh in on whether the closures have affected turnout. The ACLU declined to comment on turnout yet.
The Johnson County League of Women Voters, a group that did not take a position when the changes became public, is also waiting to learn more about the primary turnout, said president Alleen VanBebber.
Chair Kelly did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Voting will resume in person at precinct sites at 7 a.m. Tuesday. Click here to find your polling place.
Mail-in ballots will be accepted through Friday
Meanwhile, ballots sent through the mail will still be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at the county election office by Friday.
Late last week, the Kansas Supreme Court rejected Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s motion to reinstate a law that eliminates the three-day grace period for mail-in ballots, requiring ballots to arrive by Election Day in order to count.
That move allows a lower court’s injunction against the law, SB 4, to stand for this primary election.
In an emailed statement, the Johnson County Election Office confirmed it would be counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Tuesday.
“Johnson County will be reporting all votes cast early in person and on Election Day and any mail ballots collected from polling places or drop boxes on Election night. As usual, advance votes will be reported by 7:30 on Election night. Any ballots received in the mail during the grace period will be included in the results updated on Friday. All provisionals will be reviewed by the Board of County Canvass,” the statement said.
The League of Women Voters of Johnson County, which did not take an official position on SB 4 before last week’s high court decision, but President Alleen VanBebber said in a statement, “It’s a relief that, at least for this election cycle, the grace period still applies and voter confusion shouldn’t be an issue.”
Editor Kyle Palmer contributed to this report.
Keep reading: Still haven’t voted in Johnson County? Check out our last-minute ballot guide
